I wrote yesterday about Quova “becoming a company.” Return Path – which celebrates its six birthday today – also became “a company” this year. I’m incredibly proud of the team at Return Path – we invested in 2000 in a company (actually, “a product”) called Veripost which merged after a year with Return Path when both companies were pursuing their Series B financing. Each company was chasing the same market (ECOA – Email Change of Address), were ahead of their time, were really only “a product”, and had the potential to vanish when the Internet bubble burst.
Instead of vanishing, Matt Blumberg and the Return Path team have done an awesome job of building a real company and having the prescience to acquire Assurance Systems – a company started by George Bilbrey (one of the Veripost founders) – early in it’s life. George’s company formed the core of the Email Delivery Assurance business that Return Path currently dominates and George and his team at Assurance have been key members of the Return Path team.
I’ve shared office space with the Return Path team since the inception of Veripost – hopefully they’ll have a cake today (and will bring me a piece).